There is a new virus that has been spreading that many might have heard of. Yes, it’s monkeypox. An extremely rare medical condition can also be considered as a family part of smallpox but less severe.
Currently, around 250 cases have surfaced in 16 countries as per the reports of the World Health Organization. According to experts say it is spread by close contact with the infected person.
WHO’s Europe director, Dr. Hans Kluge has said the outbreak is “atypical,” describing the disease’s appearance in so many countries across the continent suggested that “transmission has been ongoing for some time.” According to the current scenario cases in Europe are mostly mild.
In India, no cases of monkeypox have been reported yet, but central and state governments are keeping a regular tab on the outbreak.
The World Health Organization estimates almost thousands of monkeypox infections in most of the African countries every year. Especially in Congo, where 6,000 cases come annually. In 2003, 47 cases of monkeypox were found in six U.S. states. They caught the virus from pet prairie dogs that had been housed near imported small mammals from Ghana.
The cases typically come with travel to Africa or coming in contact with animals from areas where the cases frequently occur.
Nigeria reports about 3,000 monkeypox cases a year, WHO said. Outbreaks are usually in rural areas when people have close contact with infected rats and squirrels.
Symptoms of monkeypox are quite similar to smallpox beginning with fever, headache, body pain, and exhaustion. The main difference between these diseases is that monkeypox causes lymph nodes to swell (lymphadenopathy) whereas smallpox does not.
